308 IRELAND. 



ous tract near the lake of Killarney. Whether it be owing to the soil 

 or the climate, it is certain that in Ireland there are neither moles 

 nor toads, nor any kind of serpents ; and it is not more than eighty 

 or ninety years since frogs, of which there are now abundance, were 

 first imported from England. The magpye and the nightingale are 

 strangers here ; and it is said that the latter bird, if brought over in 

 a cage, soon pines and dies. There are also some other birds and se- 

 veral kinds of fish, which abound in England, but are unknown in Ire- 

 land. 



Natural curiosities. ...The greatest natural curiosity in Ireland 

 is the Giant's Causeway, in the county of Antrim, about eight miles 

 from Coleraine, which is thus described by Dr. Pococke, late bishop 

 of Ossory, a celebrated traveller and antiquary. He says, " that he 

 measured the most westerly point at high water, to the distance of 

 360 feet from the cliff; but he was told, that at low water, it extend- 

 ed 60 feet farther upon a descent, till it was lost in the sea. Upon 

 measuring the eastern point, he found it 540 feet from the cliff; and 

 saw as much more of it as of the other, where it winds to the east, 

 and is, like that, lost in the water. 



" The causeway is composed of pillars, all of angular shapes, from 

 three sides to eight. The eastern point, where it joins the rock, ter- 

 minates in a perpendicular cliff, formed by the upright sides of the 

 pillars, some of which are 33 feet 4 inches high. Each pillar con- 

 sists of several joints or stones, lying one upon another, from six 

 inches to about one foot in thickness ; and what is very surprising, 

 some of these joints are so convex, that their prominences are nearly 

 quarters of spheres, round each of which is a ledge, which holds 

 them together with the greatest firmness, every stone being con- 

 cave on the other side, and fitting in the exactest manner the con- 

 vexity of the upper part of that beneath it. The pillars are from one 

 to two feet in diameter, and generally consist of about forty joints, 

 most of which separate very easily ; and one may walk along upon 

 the tops of the pillars, as far as to the edge of the water. 



" But this is not the most singular part of this extraordinary curi- 

 osity, the cliffs themselves being still more surprising. From the 

 bottom, which is of black stone, to the height of about sixty feet, 

 they are divided at equal distances, by stripes of a reddish stone, that 

 resembles a cement, about four inches in thickness; upon this there 

 is another stratum of the same black stone, with a stratum of five 

 inches thick of the red. Over this is another stratum, ten feet thick, 

 divided in the same manner ; then a stratum of the red stone, twenty 

 feet deep, and above that a stratum of upright pillars ; above these 

 pillars lies another stratum of black stone, twenty feet high ; and 

 above this again, another stratum of upright pillars, rising, in some 

 places, to the tops of the cliffs ; in others not so high, and in others 

 again above it, where they are called the Chimnies. The face of 

 these cliffs extends about three English miles." 



Ireland abounds in cataracts, caverns, and romantic prospects. 

 The scenery of the lake of Killarney has been already described. In 

 the side of the mountain of Kishecorran, in the county of Sligo, are 

 six caverns, which extend to the distance of 80 or 90 feet. The sides 

 are covered with a smooth, white substance, like plaister. The largest 

 has, at the entrance, a kind of hall, of a circular form, about 30 feet 

 in diameter, and as many in height. Near the city of Cork there is 

 a vast subterranean labyrinth, called the Oven, the extent of which 



